Messages from
Zoe

If you read the last one of these, you might remember me talking about private testing and inviting a handful of MSPs to try Unified DNS before anyone else. Well, that happened. And then some.

We went live on March 4th. That sentence is deceptively simple for how much work went into getting there. There were months of late nights, weekends spent debugging edge cases that only appear when real MSPs with real domains hit real DNS APIs. The private beta was invaluable for that. It's one thing to test with your own domains in a controlled environment. It's another thing entirely when someone connects 200+ domains across 3 different registrars and starts making changes.

One of the things that has stuck with me through this whole process is the demos. I've had the privilege of demoing Unified DNS to MSPs of all sizes. The workflows are different, the scale is different, but the pain is the same. And almost every single demo, without fail, someone asks the same question.

"Why has no one made this yet?"

I hear it so often that it's almost become a running joke at this point. But every time someone says it, it still hits the same way. It validates everything. The late nights, the risk, the decision to build this without outside funding. That question tells me we're not solving a made-up problem. We're solving something MSPs have been quietly dealing with for years because nobody thought to build a tool for it.

The answer I usually give is that DNS just isn't glamorous. Nobody gets excited about DNS at a conference. There's no keynote about managing TXT records. Vendors build for the categories that get attention and budget — RMM, PSA, security. DNS management flies under the radar because it works until it doesn't, and when it doesn't, it's usually urgent and chaotic. That's exactly why it needs better tooling.

I want to take a moment to talk about the private beta participants. To every MSP and every individual who took the time to sign up, connect their domains, and give us feedback — thank you. Genuinely. Some of you found bugs I never would have caught. Some of you suggested features that are now built into the application — ideas that came directly from demos and feature requests during testing, things that were so obviously needed once you said them out loud. Some of you just used the platform quietly and that usage data alone helped us understand how people actually work with DNS day-to-day.

You didn't have to do any of that. You chose to trust a brand new product from a small company with your DNS data, and that's not a small thing. I don't take that lightly.

The product is better because of you. The roadmap is better because of you. The way I think about building this company is better because of the conversations we've had.

We're still bootstrapped. Still no venture capital. Still just me and my small business. What has changed is that we're no longer just an idea or a private beta. We're live. MSPs are using this in production, every day. That feels different.

If you've been on the fence, the door is open. We're offering the first month free with code FREETRIAL2026 at billing setup. No contracts, no commitments. Just try it and see if it makes your life easier. I think it will.

One more thing. We're still very early in this journey, but that doesn't mean we have to wait to start giving back. We're working on something on the philanthropy side that I'm genuinely excited about. It's something really close to me personally — something I know will make a real difference in the lives of people who might be in similar situations to where I was growing up. I can't share the details just yet, but it's in the works. Stay tuned on that one.

And if you're one of the beta participants reading this — you already know.

Thank you for checking out Fernworks new produ… Oh, you're actually reading this page? A human? You're not just an AI bot or a web crawler scraping this page for content? Wow, I didn't think anyone would actually read this. Well, that means you either have time to burn, or you're really interested in Unified DNS and what I'm building here. So, let me give you some backstory.

I've worked at 2 different MSPs that were at very different stages of maturity and development. One of those MSPs is an IT Services company that was founded in 1998. The second MSP was a software development company, and did some IT services for their software customers up until a few years ago where they started transitioning to being a proper MSP. In the first MSP, I started on the helpdesk and was the first person they had hired in 10+ years. I wound up moving through roles before becoming the Lead Cloud Engineer by year 2 where I developed the Cloud Management line-of-business.

I have former colleagues who've moved on to other MSPs, some are at 5-10 person companies, others are now with a few of the national MSPs that have hundreds of employees. You know one item that is consistently an area that is missed and is lacking among those experiences? DNS and Domain Management.

In the MSP space there is a tool for nearly everything. RMM? Yeah, there's probably 100+ RMMs out there. PSA? Yep. SIEM? Yep. ZTNA? Yep. Platform agnostic MFA? Yep. Password management? Mhmm.

I could go on, but the one area that most in the MSP space who have been on a help desk, system admin team, field team, etc could all agree on is that DNS and Domain management is not something most think about.

I started an MSP consulting firm in February 2025. I've worked with MSPs on tons of projects. One that I led for a client this year was consolidating more of their domain registrations down from 5 to 3 registrars. It was a step towards making their documentation simpler, but the big item was improving the quality of life for their technicians. It was two less platforms to manage, two less vendors, and it meant that now they only needed to document or remember 3 vendors instead of 5.

Some MSPs will choose to pick a single registrar and tell their clients they all have to use this registrar. I've seen some move to Cloudflare, others NameSilo, and a popular one on r/msp is Porkbun. It's a step in the right direction, but these platforms aren't built specifically for MSPs, and they still don't give a single-pane-of-glass like we come to expect of our MSP tools. To steal a line from a Reddit user on a post recently.. "What MSPs actually need is vendors to design for how MSPs really operate under load." (Hello to that Reddit user if you're reading this!) None of those registrars or DNS providers I mentioned were designed for MSPs, so they don't function or operate how is best for the space.

So, back in September I finished up that project for the client. They finally got the last domain off this 4th vendor to bring them down to 3 registrars to juggle. Once that project finished, I set out to make Unified DNS. It's been hard to keep my mouth shut about it, but the time has finally come where I get to be loud about it.

This app is being developed without venture capital, without external startup funds, or any other source outside of Silverfern Technology Consultants (my consulting firm.) There are no big names with stake in this app. Just me and my small business. Someone who loves the MSP space and is incredibly happy to be in it, someone who wants to see it be better. Not just for the client's served, but also for the technicians working tier 1 and tier 2. The easier they can do their job, the better experience your clients have, the happier both stay. That's how development is going to be lead, that's how the roadmap will be decided.

With that said, that's why we are going to be running a private testing period. I want to invite a handful or two of MSPs to join the testing period free of charge. We need real data (other than my domains and the testing domains I purchased), but we also need real feedback from those doing this day in and day out. It also gives us a chance to stress test the backend and get the product out of our super sanitary testing environment. Everything always works fine, until it's used by someone else.

If you're still here and still reading this, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to make it this far. There are a hundred other things you could be doing, but instead you're here.

If you are an MSP, please consider reaching out regarding the testing period. I would love to learn about you and your business, but also to get your feedback on this and for you to help guide us on where the tool should go and what should be on our roadmap.